1. What are the known issues?
        a. Although there are over 30,000 actors in the IMDB, .. we only have 400. so, ... some Actor Links that you click on in the Movie Details page, ... will generate an error , ie no Bio for that actor. (FIXED rev. 092308!!!)
        b. There is a bug in the firmware of the PCH which limits the number of displayable images on a html page to 105. If you have a page with more than 105 images, . then you will have missing images, even though they are present in the images folder. This is why we currently limit the number of movie covers on a html page to 91. If you have a large database, it is possible, to have, in the main index, on one of the alphabetic listing pages,  more than 105 movies. In this case, you will be missing some of the cover images.
         c. With the latest revision of the firmware, ...the PCH stopped running the index.htm file automatically on SMB, or NFS network shares. It still runs the index automatically on internal hard drive and usb hard drives though.
 

2. What's the Big Deal with  Linux and Windows?

         The PCH runs Linux, so, unlike Windows, which isn't case sensitive on file name, file extensions, etc.... you have to be very careful when entering your variables, etc ...ie, .. if a folder is named Movies, ... then you cannot enter "movies",  Linux won't recognize it, .. you must enter "Movies".  It's the same for  the network shares too,... ie if your movies are on a hard drive ... SAMBA_DISK_A3, .... then don't even think about entering samba_Disk_A3 ... you must enter SAMBA_DISK_A3.

3. MOUNTING shares?  Unlike Windows, .. where all hard drives and devices are available all the time, .. Linux devices must be MOUNTED in order to work. So, .. even though you entered all the information correctly in the Export Movie Maker menus, .. you movie may not play. If your movies are on an internal or usb hard drive, .. no problem, .. but if your movies are on a networked hard drive outside the PCH, (SMB, NFS, or HTTP)  .. then those device must be MOUNTED first before the menu sytem will play your movies from the movie details page. What you must do is Click on the SOURCE button on your remote, then Click on the remote network share, ... then using the remote, browse and click on a movie, .. and start it playing (which automatically MOUNTS the Network Share), ... THEN, you can exit the movie, .... run the menu system, .. and everything will work. Any time you reboot the PCH, you'll have to do this. There are users working on a fix for this, ... so stay tuned..

4. Understanding HOW the Movie Collector, Movie Jukebox maker, and the PCH all work together to allow you to view, select and play your movies.

5. Special Characters on Menu Titles and Genre Links: For some strange reason, the export templates do NOT like the use of any special characters, .. ie  ..&, è, ä, ó, í, Í, ö.  plus others, So, when you are naming your Genre Links and page tiles, please refrain from using these special characters, as the html pages will only be partially present, & appear cutoff.

6. Foreign Languages.  Although languages are now supported on the page titles and genre links, .. you still cannot use any language other than English for Movie Collector while the Movie Jukebox maker is running. Which means, ... you can use Movie Collector in your language of choice, ... while entering movies, etc , ... but right before you close the program to run Movie Jukebox Maker, .. switch the language to ENGLISH.  After the export is done, then you can switch back to your preferred language.

7. Do I need to run Irfanview?  No. It's there and available to run, because we've noticed that when the Movie Collector exports the movie cover thumbnails over to the PCH, ... they sometimes can appear pixelated or grainy. to remedy this, you can have the export program run Irfanview to cleanup the thumbnails and make them appear a little better.

8.ImageMagick fails. and my movie covers in the detail pages are blank.  Again, you don't have to run Imagemagick in order to enjoy the Movie Jukebox. The Movie Collector exports the full front and back cover images of the movies over to the PCH. And those images are jpgs. You can SPIFFY up those images by running the Imagemagick program. It will add a mirror effect, perspective, and a blue glow to the images, and save them as png files. NOTE: When running the Movie Jukebox Maker program, ... Click on the DETAIL SETTINGS tab, ... in there you'll see a place to select which file extension to display forthe movie covers, ... Make certain that you have selected the correct one for your situation. Initially, this is set for PNG, .. so if you were t say NO to run Imagemagick, then there will be no PNG covers in your images folder, .. and when the Detail page is viewed, you'll see a blank instead of the cover. So, .. if you don't run Imagemagick,  . then select jpg in the DETAIL SETTINGS tab, ... only select png if you run Imagemagick.

If you run Imagemagick in the Export program, ... select png for file extension.
If you do NOT run Imagemagick, select jpg for the file extension.

9. Running the Movie Jukebox Maker program. When you run the export program, ... it will automatically perform over 460 exports of html files over to the PCH. While this is running, please DO NOT attempt to use your mouse or run anything else in the background.  Depending on how many movies you have, the program could take 30-60 minutes to run the first time., .. so relax,... step AWAY from the PC, .. and go have a beer!!!

10. Can I email you or PM to you my questions?  NO! I reserve email tech support, even give out my phone number, to those who graciously donated some small amount for the work I have done. No, you don't have to donate, .. but if that's the case, please ONLY post your questions on the newsgroup. Yes, I will answer these as well, but only as I get the time to do so.

11. If I only add a few movies, do I have to run the whole export again?   YES, ... but it will be much faster on subsequent export runs. First, add the new movies to the Movie Collector, ... let the program search IMDB and DVD Empire for the movie info. then, go to the LINKS tab, and add the movie link to play the movie.
When you run the Export Program, ... make the following selections:  Copy Resources Folder? NO, Copy Actors folder? NO, and over on the Detail Settings tab, .. make sure that "Overwrite existing images/details? is set to NO.  When the export runs, it will finish much faster now. Image magick will NOT convert any images that it has already done, .. so this is a BIG speedup. Also the main export will NOT overwrite all of the already done detail pages and images.

12. Do I have to install a hard drive in the NMT in order to run the menu files and play my movies?    NO!
You do NOT need a hard drive installed inside the NMT. You can export the html menu files to any storage device that the NMT can recognize, ... internal hard drive, external USB, external SMB or NFS network share, NAS, http, etc.  When you turn on the Popcorn Hour, the source menu will be displayed, ... and when you select a particular device, if there's an index.htm file in the root folder of that device, the popcorn will run it! 

13. For troubleshooting ... use this handy Export Program.... I have added "delays" in the export so that you can follow the 'action' to see where  your problem is....

Movie_Jukebox_UPDATE_010409 TROUBLESHOOTER.zip
 

In revision 5, the template names are all changed from that of rev3 or 4, so you don't have to worry about the files overwriting your previous work.

Also, once you have begun running rev 5, ... you no longer have to worry about re-doing your variables files , when an update is released, as most all of the important variables that you enter when you run the export program are now saved in the registry for use when the export program is run the next time.

With this revision, the process of setting up and exporting all of your movie html files over to your Popcorn Hour is now completely automated!  The programs on this page work for either WinXP or Vista! As always, Mr Phelps, we will disavow any knowledge of this program, should some mishap occur, .. so BACKUP your movie database & Windows Registry OFTEN!!!!  :)

14. My movie won't play!!!   What do I do?
There are 2 things to do, .... first, ... make sure that your movie will play on your pc, ... ie use Windows Explorer to navigate to the file, and Double Click on it, .. and make sure it will play on yoru PC.   Then,  the next step is to see if the movie will play from inside Movie Collector (assuming that you already have added the movie, and setup the Movie file link per the instructions).  Open Movie Collector, then in the left pane, click on the movie in question. Then in the right pane, you'll see the PLAY link that you entered for this movie.  Just Click on it, .. and, as long as you have the required player setup on your pc (ie Windows Media player for avi files and MPC or Zoom Player for mkvs) the movie will open and play.  Once you have this working, then you can begin troubleshooting why the movie won't play on the Popcorn.